Union wants enough time for Qantas crew base workers to decide future

The Flight Attendants' Association says it is negotiating with Qantas this week to ensure staff affected by the closure of the airline's Cairns crew base will have enough time to make difficult decisions.

The airline is closing the base in the next few months as part of its $2 billion cost-cutting program, with 110 flight attendants to be transferred to other cities or offered redundancies.

The association's national secretary, Jo Ann Davidson, says many will have to uproot their lives.

"Some people it might be easy but others, when they've got family commitments and other commitments, it may be difficult," she said.

"So that's what we'll be discussing with the company about a time line about exiting rather than a one date but we will work through that with the company."

She says the workers face tough decisions.

"Obviously some have families, children in schools, so we have to really work through all of those things and make sure that all the crew have been given sufficient time to make decisions and sufficient time to relocate and everything that goes with those issues," she said.

Ms Davidson says while many workers are concerned about job prospects under the cost-cutting program, she is confident the airline will accommodate Cairns staff who are willing to move.

"I can't see why they won't be able to accommodate that expression but they've got to work through that," she said.

"We need to come up with an agreement around the base closure in terms of the relocation costs, the timing of the crew moving, what bases they go to.